For Mark Hanna, the most valuable CTS lesson was learning to think like an integrator—a perspective he believes can help churches avoid expensive equipment decisions.
Recently, I passed the AVIXA CTS certification. CTS stands for Certified Technology Specialist. After 20-plus years in the industry, I thought it might finally be time to add some credibility to my hands-on experience. This led me to want to share some of my findings and experiences and encourage other church TDs who might be on the fence about getting the certification. Plus, selfishly, articles posted in industry magazines that cover CTS topics count as renewal units for keeping your certification current.
The tech job in many churches, especially small ones, tends to go to what my friend Van would affectionately refer to as the “leaper with the most fingers.” I, for one, know that idiom was right on the nose in my case. My first video job at a church: I wasn’t hired because I was qualified; it was because I was the guy in the room who knew the most about video. Which isn’t tough to do when everyone else in the room knows nothing about video. From all the time I spent with tech people over the years, most can empathize.
CTS certification fills the knowledge gaps that years of hands-on experience may leave behind.
As a pigeonholed video guy, studying for the CTS expanded my audio understanding. Now I am not going to mix a worship band tomorrow or anything, but I learned things like how the inverse square law applies to audio. I knew the inverse square law, but as a video guy, I was focused on how it pertained to light. I wasn’t aware that energy falloff applied to audio the same way it does to light. Apparently, energy is energy. Having never had formal training in audio, I didn’t know that. I knew I had big gaps in my understanding and fundamentals of audio, and some of the things I learned studying for the CTS filled in some of those gaps.
The first tech hire for most churches is not surprisingly an audio person. Small churches may not even have any video needs right off the bat. In the over twenty years I have worked with churches, I have never been the first tech person at a church. So why would an audio professional need the CTS certification? Easy: for an audio person, things you would learn studying for the exam would be video types, cable length and connectors, and other video math like projector throw ratios. All these things are great for anyone in the AV space to know, but if you are behind a sound board every time the church door opens, it can be difficult to learn things across other disciplines.
Studying for the CTS took Mark Hanna beyond his video specialty, expanding his audio knowledge and helping him assess what a church needs before deciding what to buy.
While all of that is great, I think the most important thing I learned studying for the CTS was to think more like an integrator. Creating, implementing, and supporting AV solutions cover much of the content in the CTS. It’s why many AV integration companies require this cert, or the ability to get it quickly. This is vitally important for church tech people. Churches always have upgrades on the horizon, even if the horizon is very far off. Eventually, your church is going to need to make an upgrade—maybe even a big one. The lessons you learn studying for the CTS would benefit your church hugely.
Learning to think like an integrator can prevent expensive mistakes during an AV upgrade.
If you are planning to work with an integrator, it would be helpful to know how they think. Learning things like; site survey, needs analysis, project scope, and the different types of reports and where they belong in the overall integration workflow are all on the CTS exam. This information isn’t just helpful to your church and your integrator; it could help save your church a significant amount of money and heartache.
More importantly, many churches can’t or won’t use an integrator. Maybe it’s budget, maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s a lack of understanding, but if you are going to function as the “in-house subject matter expert” and do your own integration/installation, the CTS would expose you to workflow and knowledge that would prepare you to approach an upgrade or installation properly. Not just the slip-shod; buy it, plug it in, and hope it works way that a lot of churches approach tech. Having a good understanding of needs analysis alone, you would be better prepared to ask the right questions. Rather than just jumping into an upgrade and just buying the name brand you are familiar with, or buying the same gear the church down the street uses. It’s better to really think through the desired outcome of the upgrade better prepares you to be a smart shopper.
Cross-disciplinary knowledge is especially valuable in churches where one person handles nearly everything.
Personally, I am a gear freak; speeds and feeds excite me. I understand tools and technology; that’s partly why I got into tech in the first place, because it made sense to me when no one else understood. Learning what I learned and studying for this exam is something I wish I had done years ago. I got introduced to electrical power conversions and AV math that I had never had the need to do before. It got me thinking about approaching installations in a way I never would have before. Most importantly, I get to back up all the experience I have in the AV industry by saying I am a certified technical specialist. If you work in AV in a church, you should be one too.
